the moment you all have been waiting for......bishops vs knights! They each have their own advantages, so it's best that you figure it out now Create a position that your minor pieces crave ~ knights tend to do better in closed positions as they can hop around to great squares, whereas bishops thrive in open center positions where they can easily dominate the board.
Our first example shows how an apparently simple position can actually be filled with minor piece tension. On the surface, things look easy: white has two bishops and would like to open things up, while black has a bishop and knight and would be happy if he could activate his bishop and find a nice home for his knight. The main questions here are, should white take on e5, push to d5, or simply ignore the face-off between the d4 and e5 pawns altogether. Let's look at the three dif options
Closing the center
ignoring the tension in the center
opening up the center
so does this mean the 1.dxe5 is just better for white? Not necessarily! Black lost that battle because he didn't do enough to make his knight challenge the white bishops. So let's return to the original position and show a more principled course for black:
hopefully these diagrams give you a better idea of how to effectively use the knights and bishops. Here's a quick review
Owner of the bishop:
- make it as active as possible by placing it on a free diagonal, or creating one.
- prove that it's performing a key function and is extremely useful
- steer things into an endgame where the long-range capabilities of the bishop give it a huge edge over the enemy knight.
- don't allow the enemy knight to find its way to an advanced permanent support point.
Owner of the knight:
- closing the position is good for knights
- steer for endgames where all the pawns are on one side of the board. This negates the enemy bishop's long-range abilities while amplifying the importance of the knights ability to attack both white and dark squares.
- breate a permanent advanced support point for your knight (outpost)
- try to find a way to get to the support point! It might take several moves, but that's what moves are for - to place pieces on their best squares so they can exert maximum effect on the board
The incarcerated knight
I might add more examples here as time goes on, but for now, try to be mindful of the activity of your knights and bishops! They have feelings too
the moment you all have been waiting for......bishops vs knights! They each have their own advantages, so it's best that you figure it out now
Create a position that your minor pieces crave ~ knights tend to do better in closed positions as they can hop around to great squares, whereas bishops thrive in open center positions where they can easily dominate the board.
Our first example shows how an apparently simple position can actually be filled with minor piece tension. On the surface, things look easy: white has two bishops and would like to open things up, while black has a bishop and knight and would be happy if he could activate his bishop and find a nice home for his knight. The main questions here are, should white take on e5, push to d5, or simply ignore the face-off between the d4 and e5 pawns altogether. Let's look at the three dif options
Closing the center
so does this mean the 1.dxe5 is just better for white? Not necessarily! Black lost that battle because he didn't do enough to make his knight challenge the white bishops. So let's return to the original position and show a more principled course for black:
hopefully these diagrams give you a better idea of how to effectively use the knights and bishops. Here's a quick review
Owner of the bishop:
- make it as active as possible by placing it on a free diagonal, or creating one.
- prove that it's performing a key function and is extremely useful
- steer things into an endgame where the long-range capabilities of the bishop give it a huge edge over the enemy knight.
- don't allow the enemy knight to find its way to an advanced permanent support point.
Owner of the knight:
- closing the position is good for knights
- steer for endgames where all the pawns are on one side of the board. This negates the enemy bishop's long-range abilities while amplifying the importance of the knights ability to attack both white and dark squares.
- breate a permanent advanced support point for your knight (outpost)
- try to find a way to get to the support point! It might take several moves, but that's what moves are for - to place pieces on their best squares so they can exert maximum effect on the board
The incarcerated knight
I might add more examples here as time goes on, but for now, try to be mindful of the activity of your knights and bishops! They have feelings too